Dr. Marie Hanna, MD, MEHP, is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is also the Division Chief of Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Management. In 2016, she earned a Master’s degree in health care education. She is considered to be an expert in acute pain management within the Johns Hopkins Health Care System and a dedicated teacher of residents and fellows.

As faculty at Johns Hopkins since 2003, Dr. Hanna has become a leader in the field of acute pain management and built successful programs in pain management and patient-centered care. She co-chairs a committee that created opioid prescribing guidelines for all of the Johns Hopkins Health Care System to help fight the opioid epidemic. She has received multiple awards and was recently nominated as one of the Top Successful Egyptian Women. She has participated as a speaker at many national and international conferences, presented her work at the Pain Research & Management meeting in London (October 2017), in Cairo/Egypt (April 2018), the Charité Hospital – University of Berlin, and in Rome at the 2^nd World Congress on Surgery and Anesthesia. Additionally, Dr Hanna has written pain management chapters for two of the most prestigious pain management text books: Practical Management of Pain and Bonica’s Management of Pain.

As a response to the ever-worsening opioid epidemic in America, Dr. Hanna founded a novel personalized pain program in June 2017 with the central goal of reducing opioid use among chronic opioid users during the perioperative period. With guidance from a multidisciplinary team of chronic and acute pain specialists, psychiatrists, and physical, integrative, and rehabilitation medicine specialists, the Perioperative Pain Program is tailored to wean opioid use leading up to and immediately following a patient’s scheduled procedure. The program adds value to patient care by improving perioperative pain control, reducing opioid use, and reducing the percentage of patients who might become chronic opioid users. Dr Hanna and her team received an R01 grant from the Centers for Disease Control to promote their innovative clinical work. In addition, the Perioperative Pain Program was featured on an official Johns Hopkins webcast and in the American Journal of Medical Quality.

Dr. Hanna and her team have observed glimmers of brightness amidst the current opioid epidemic, specifically when they witness patients in their program effectively shedding their addiction to opioids, even after many years of dependency. It is Dr. Hanna’s hope that the work of the clinic will light a candle in every household and in every patient who participates in the pain program. She likes to send a message of hope that the opioid crisis is not insurmountable, and a reminder of the resolve embodied by those who have overcome opioid addiction.

On a personal level, Dr Hanna is a mother of three grown children, all in the medical field. She enjoys spending time with and traveling with her family. She always seeks truth in medicine and loves to learn every day.  She believes in positivity and hope. She likes to say, “when you see darkness … light a candle.”